As the longest man-made river in the world, the Grand canal claims an     1    (influence)place in China.

The original canal system began around AD 605,     2     completion was owed to the Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty. He found it necessary to possess a better way to feed his army,     3    (specific), a way to move food quickly from China’s southern rice-growing region to the north. So, the emperor ordered the construction of the first section of the Grand Canal,     4    (connect)existing canals, lakes, and rivers. An     5    (estimate)one million people worked on the construction, which took six years. But there is no doubt that the canal actually promoted China’s economic development, even today.

And     6     it comes to the canal, its cultural function can’t be ignored. Some critics even think that     7     the Grand canal, the advanced ideas, regional foods and cultural practices couldn’t have been transported from one part of China to another smoothly and quickly. According to legend, this is how Beijing acquired two of its best-known trademarks. Peking duck, a dish from Shandong Province, and the Peking opera, from Anhui and Hubei regions,     8    (bring)north via the canal.

In 2005, a group of citizens proposed that the Grand Canal be made a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which would protect both the waterway and the architecture around it. With great efforts, the day people had been looking forward to     9    (come)in 2014, when UNESCO status was officially granted. The hope now is that the Grand Canal—one of the world’s great engineering     10    (accomplish)—will continue to link north and south China for centuries to come.

Chinese seals are symbolic of identity, status and culture. With roots     1     (date) back thousands of years, they are more than just a unique motif (图案).

A Chinese seal (yìn zhāng) is a seal or stamp     2     (use) to mark important documents, or any other item that requires a signature.     3     (typical), the seals are made of stone, but they can also be made of wood, bamboo, etc. When the seals are used, they     4     (dip) in either red ink or cinnabar (朱砂) paste.

It wasn’t until the Ming and Qing dynasties that the seals were widely used, due to the     5     (expand) of the arts. Artists used a stylized seal carving of their names     6     (mark) the ownership of their works. Individuals also used a personalized stamp     7     important documents.

Engravings (雕刻) on the seal face can follow several calligraphy styles,     8     master engravers spared no effort to develop. Today, seals are still used widely throughout China for marking important documents. Seals are often accompanied by hand signatures as a     9     (much) secure form of identification than just one type.

Nowadays, along with calligraphy, painting and wax printing, seal carving is considered     10     traditional Chinese art.

Celadon (青瓷), a type of greenish porcelain (陶瓷), is a traditional Chinese art. Mature celadon came     1     being in the Eastern Han Dynasty. In Tang Dynasty, celadon     2     (export) to lots of overseas countries, such as Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, Japan, playing     3     major part in the “Maritime Silk Road”. The celadon from the Guan Kiln (官窑) of the Southern Song Dynasty is the peak of celadon producing,     4     is characterized by its bright and smooth lines, simple shapes and pure colors. It is considered as the treasure among ancient porcelain     5     (product). Nowadays many Chinese porcelain factories have adopted more advanced facilities and upgraded producing technology,     6     (make) them green as jade and bright as a mirror.

The formation of each celadon     7     (be) a process of life casting. Only after being burnt at around 1300℃ for 400 hours can it be made into an object. The     8     (difficult) of firing celadon is obvious, but at the same time, it makes each piece unique in the world. Because of the existence of celadon, many Chinese artists have been     9     (constant) searching for the spirit of “the unity of man and nature” by appreciating the art of “mud and fire” and reflecting on the historical and     10     (culture) context in it.

6 . Imagine an albatross (信天翁) with a hacksaw for a mouth. Set that strange creature about 50 million years in the past and you’ve got the image of a pelagornithid, a group of ancient birds that included some of the largest flying birds of all time.

Now paleontologists (古生物学家) have uncovered in that group what may be the largest known flying birds ever, with wingspans of roughly six meters. By comparing a pair of polar fossils ( 化 石 ) to the remains of related birds, paleontologists have been able to identify the early history of huge fliers that were some of the first birds capable of flying across seas.

During the 1980s, University of California Berkeley paleontologist Peter Kloess says, scientists searching for Antarctic fossils found some delicate bird bones — a jaw and part of a foot from an ancient bird. Those bones made a long journey to California, and Kloess and his colleagues have researched them recently

The bird jaw, which came from a rock formation laid down over 37 million years ago, looks almost like a woodcutting tool rather than a bone. The jaw has a series of large and small spikes (尖刺), outgrowths of the beak (鸟喙) that are similar to teeth. Because of that feature, the paleontologists immediately identified the jaw as belonging to a pelagornithid, also known as bony-toothed birds that have a very long fossil record. The oldest pelagornithids evolved about 56 million years ago, and the most recent flew through the skies about two million years ago.

The foot bone came from another large Antarctic pelagornithid, but its real importance was in its age. The fossil was found in a rock layer in the La Meseta Formation, about 50 million years old. This falls within a time called the Eocene, when life had recovered from the asteroid-induced mass extinction and was thriving again. Together, the foot bone and the jaw indicate that large bony-toothed birds thrived in the Antarctic for millions of years.

Paleontologists have found bony-toothed birds from places all over the world, from New Zealand to South Carolina. The newly-described Antarctic fossils, though, are the oldest known and hint that these birds quickly diversified into a range of sizes within six million years of their origin. Previous studies have calculated that the largest of the bony-toothed birds could be near the limit of how big a bird could get and still fly, meaning these birds are the strongest competitors for the largest flying birds to ever fly.

Matched with the new data on the age of the fossils, Kloess says, “we can say that giant pelagornithids appeared earlier than previously known and that Antarctica saw a range of pelagornithid sizes from the early to late Eocene.” Small to large, bony-toothed birds were an important part of ancient Antarctic ecosystems.

Those impressive wings would have allowed the pelagornithids to range far and wide, flying long distances on outstretched wings. That helps explain why fossils from various species of pelagornithids have been found all over the world during their extended evolutionary period.

7 . People all around the world have enjoyed noodles for thousands of years.     1     People first started growing wheat and making flour in the Middle East around 10,000 years ago. But no one had ever found a prehistoric noodle —until 2002.

Archaeologists discovered an upside-down clay bowl in the ruins of an ancient Chinese village.     2     This “mummy” noodle was made from millet. Traders brought wheat to China about the time this ancient noodle was cooked.

Some people claim that Marco Polo brought pasta to Italy. The tale says that when he visited China, he tried noodles for the first time and liked them so much that he took the recipe home.     3     In fact, it was likely made up by an American magazine to try to get Americans to eat more pasta.

    4     The oldest written mention of pasta outside China comes from the Middle East, about 1,600 years ago. The text describes how to eat dried noodles, a popular travel food in the Middle East and Central Asia. Dried noodles were perfect for long trips.     5     Some historians believe that dried noodles spread out from the Middle East or Central Asia. Traders packed their noodles and travelled to other parts of the world. Wherever they got the recipe, Italians were eating pasta long before Marco Polo.

So who REALLY invented noodles? We may never know—the history of noodles is as twisted as a bowl of spaghetti. But whoever invented them, we’re sure glad they did!